SK hynix posts record 2025 profit, driven by AI memory boom

A display showing high-bandwidth memory 4 is visible at SK hynix's booth during the CES 2026 tech trade show in Las Vegas, Jan. 8 (local time). Yonhap

SK hynix posted an operating profit of 47.2 trillion won ($33.13 billion) and 97.15 trillion won in sales for 2025, marking a record performance driven by strong demand for high-performance memory used in artificial intelligence (AI) servers and data centers.

The company announced its 2025 financial results on Wednesday, a day before its scheduled earnings call. Operating profit more than doubled from a year earlier, while sales rose 46.8 percent.

In the fourth quarter alone, the company posted 19.17 trillion won in operating profit and 32.83 trillion won in sales, up 137.1 percent and 66.1 percent year on year, respectively. The quarter's operating margin reached 58 percent, 4 percentage points higher than that of Taiwan's foundry giant TSMC in the period.

SK hynix is also expected to surpass not only Samsung Electronics’ Device Solutions division, which handles the company’s semiconductor business, but Samsung’s overall annual operating profit — including semiconductors, home appliances and mobile devices — by more than 3 trillion won.

According to Samsung’s earnings guidance announced earlier this month, the company’s total operating profit for 2025 was estimated at 43.53 trillion won. Samsung is scheduled to release its full 2025 earnings on Thursday.

An artist's impression of SK hynix's new M15X fab in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province / Courtesy of SK hynix

The company also said it will invest $10 billion to set up an AI solutions business in the United States, tentatively named “AI Co.,” to expand its business domain all across the AI data center ecosystem. For this, SK hynix will use its U.S. NAND subsidiary Solidigm.

The brisk 2025 earnings were driven by strong demand for advanced memory products used in AI accelerators such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM), as well as a subsequent increase in prices for legacy memory products.

According to market tracker TrendForce, the average price of a 16-gigabyte DDR5 DRAM module for PCs stood at $32.4, up nearly fourfold from October last year. This upcycle in legacy products is believed to have boosted SK hynix's sales and operating profit.

In the DRAM segment, the company said HBM sales more than doubled from a year earlier, contributing to record-breaking results. Legacy DRAM products also delivered strong growth as the firm ramped up mass production of 1c DDR5 DRAM, which refers to the sixth-generation 10-nanometer-class, as well as developing advanced server modules.

The company’s NAND segment also posted record-high revenue in 2025, as demand for enterprise solid-state drives soared in the second half of the year.

The uptrend is expected to continue for the time being, as the company appears to be gradually consolidating its influence in the industry.

According to industry officials, SK hynix is believed to have secured more than two-thirds of the HBM4 supply volume for Nvidia’s next-generation Vera Rubin platform. The company said it is now mass-producing HBM4 at volumes requested by customers.

SK hynix was also reported to be supplying HBM3E chips for Microsoft’s Maia 200 next-generation inference chip. Microsoft has already deployed the chip at its data center in Iowa and is expected to install the chip at its other sites, including facilities in Arizona.

SK hynix said the strong performance was “the result of a strategic response focused on strengthening technological competitiveness and expanding the share of high-value products in line with demand shifting toward AI.”

Analysts said the results indicate that the memory industry is breaking free from its traditional supply chain-driven ups and downs and moving toward more stable growth.

“The memory industry will no longer be confined to traditional cycles, as it is shifting toward a structure based on long-term supply contracts, where orders come first and capacity expansion follows,” SK Securities analyst Han Dong-hee said.

“For customers, the top priority will be securing stable volumes through long-term contracts, while suppliers will seek to maximize profits and achieve stable growth by optimizing the share of such agreements.”

The company also announced plans to cancel treasury shares worth 12.24 trillion won to enhance shareholder value.

“Based on our strong technological competitiveness, we will pursue sustainable growth while maintaining an optimal balance between future investment, financial stability and shareholder returns,” said Song Hyun-jong, head of SK hynix’s corporate center.